ASTANA – Master’s students from the Faculty of Journalism at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University have published AI-Tamyz, the first-ever scientific, educational, convergent, and inclusive newspaper in the Kazakh language using artificial intelligence (AI), the university’s press service reported on April 28.
Photo credit: KazNU
Alongside the printed edition, AI-Tamyz offers digital, audio-text, and video content. Articles, images, videos, and audio were all generated using various AI programs. The inclusive newspaper enables visually impaired readers to access audio versions of articles via QR codes printed in the bottom right corner of each page.
The name AI-Tamyz carries several meanings. The combination of Ai and Tamyz sounds like Aitamyz, which means “We speak” in Kazakh, symbolizing the intention to voice important scientific, educational, and social issues. Also, Tamyz (August in Kazakh) signifies a month of abundant harvest, implying that the publication will be fruitful in its contributions.
Photo credit: KazNU
The idea to create the newspaper emerged during a seminar session on Data Journalism, inspired by news of Italy’s first AI-generated newspaper. Lecturer Kanat Auesbaiuly challenged the students to make a similar project in the Kazakh language.
“Of course, fully producing it with AI was not easy because Kazakh language support in many AI tools remains limited. However, we persevered. To generate high-quality articles, images, and videos, we tested dozens of AI programs and issued hundreds of prompts until we achieved our goal,” shared Nur-Altay Umirzak, the editor-in-chief of AI-Tamyz.
Texts were generated using platforms ChatGPT and GEMINI, while audio components were created using WhisperAI, MicMonster, and Text-to-Speech technologies.
“In the future, we aim to collaborate closely with students from the university’s IT Faculty specializing in programming to develop software that integrates text, audio, and video content in Kazakh,” said Aishat Naka, the release editor and technical lead on the project.
According to Zhumabek Motanov, who generated content for the newspaper, for video content, students used tools such as CanvaAI, DALL-E, and Midjourney. They explored the creative capabilities of neural networks by generating jokes, adventure stories, and poems. For recording sound and music, they employed SunoAI.
“Our work included designing the newspaper’s layout and assembling all the necessary articles. We refined templates from CanvaAI and completed the newspaper entirely on that platform. Initially, we plan to publish AI-Tamyz either monthly or weekly. The publication is intended for all students, faculty members, and researchers at our university,” concluded Ayagoz Kabylgayym, who was responsible for assembling and designing the newspaper.
